Indian HRC exporters have increased offer prices further over the week, ended on December 2, as most of them are not in a hurry to sell the rest of coils left for January shipment, while some producers have allocation for exports only for February. Offers for Ex-Indian SAE1008 HRC have reached $445-450/mt FOB, $20/mt above the level a week ago, SteelOrbis learned.
Trading activity has gone down over the week on the major trade destination for Indian mills – in Asia. A deal for about 10,000 mt from the mills has been concluded in Vietnam at $465/mt CFR (about $440-445/mt FOB). “Trading was slower, but there are not many cheap offers in Asian market right now,” an India mill said. That is why most mills are not ready to give discounts. Official offers from mills are coming at $470-475/mt CFR ($450/mt FOB).
Buying activity for Indian coils has also been quite in the EU over the past week. Offers from mills have reached $480-485/mt CFR (corresponds to $445-450/mt FOB), while a number of deals have been done at $470/mt CFR earlier in November. According to traders, such major mills as JSW Steel has sold a lot of quantities by small sales to Europe and may become more active in sales next week.
As SteelOrbis learned, one large integrated steel mills has already sold out for January shipment, while two others have some limited volumes of up to 20,000-40,000 mt.
Thought the local market in India has performed no as good as it was expected so far, mills are still expecting some price increase in December-January.